https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2018/11/14/nfl-rams-chiefs-mexico-city-international-games/
Mexico City blunder should serve as warning after costing NFL tens of millions
By: Cameron DaSilva
The NFL is the most popular professional sports league in America. It produces the top television ratings across the country each year, has prime-time shows for things like schedule releases and fans come out in droves annually to see the future of the league at the draft.
What football isn’t, however, is the most popular sport in the world – not American football, at least. Soccer and even the NBA are miles ahead of the NFL in terms of worldwide popularity, and it’s not hard to see why. They’re both international sports with stars coming from all over the world, whereas the NFL typically gets its talent through colleges in the U.S.
The league isn’t sitting on its hands and allowing other sports to take over the globe, however. It’s taking a proactive approach by hosting a handful of games internationally each year. The three games in London last month went off without much of a hitch – Raiders-Seahawks was moved from the new Tottenham Stadium to Wembley Stadium in August – but that wasn’t the case in Mexico City.
As announced Tuesday,
the NFL is moving Monday night’s showdown between the league-leading Rams and Chiefs from Estadio Azteca to the L.A. Memorial Coliseum
because of terrible field conditions – the right decision, of course. Players threatened to sit out the game if it remained in Mexico City, essentially forcing the NFL’s hand and leading to the relocation.
There’s no shortage of revenue coming in each year for the league, but this will cost it a boatload of money, as well as plenty of embarrassment. This is a massive blunder for the NFL and Mexico City, regardless of which side is to blame.
View: https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1062463730473226240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1062463730473226240&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheramswire.usatoday.com%2F2018%2F11%2F14%2Fnfl-rams-chiefs-mexico-city-international-games%2F
The financial implications of this gaffe are troubling, but that’s hardly the biggest issue coming out of this situation. The NFL had a golden opportunity with the 9-1 Rams and 9-1 Chiefs – a potential Super Bowl preview – playing on international soil.
Fans outside the U.S. have hardly been treated to exciting games. All five international games last year were decided by at least 17 points with an average margin of victory of 26.4 points. This year, the Seahawks beat the Raiders in London 27-3 before the Titans-Chargers and Eagles-Jaguars games were one-possession games.
This Rams-Chiefs matchup had the potential to be special. It comes with the largest over-under total in the history of the NFL at 63.5 with both teams averaging more than 33 points per game. It had the makings of a colossal win for the NFL when it comes to international games.
Instead, the league has some decisions to make and reevaluating to do about future games outside the U.S., including the possibility of
playing a game in China next year.
There’s another game scheduled for Mexico City in 2019 and the deal to keep games there runs through 2021. Will this incident have any impact on that agreement? Maybe not, but Darren Rovell’s above tweet seems to suggest it could.
After all, the league has been talking about moving a team to either London or Mexico City. In no way does this stadium debacle help that case and it could create some pushback from players or other members of the organization.
Many players and coaches already dread playing internationally because of the scheduling conflicts it creates, so it’s not as if this will do anything to help those feelings.
Predicting this situation was difficult for the league, but the warning signs were there. A Shakira concert on Oct. 11 left the field in poor condition, but that was hardly the only reason for this game being moved, as some are saying on Twitter.
Here’s a look at the field after that event:
View: https://twitter.com/SoyReferee/status/1052033898094481409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1052033898094481409&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheramswire.usatoday.com%2F2018%2F11%2F14%2Fnfl-rams-chiefs-mexico-city-international-games%2F
A concert for Telehit, a Mexican TV network, on Nov. 7 – just 12 days before Chiefs-Rams – did even greater damage to the playing surface.
Take a look at the field after that show.
View: https://twitter.com/record_mexico/status/1061042544228872192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1061042544228872192&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheramswire.usatoday.com%2F2018%2F11%2F14%2Fnfl-rams-chiefs-mexico-city-international-games%2F
Then, to make matters even worse, a soccer match was played at Estadio Azteca on Nov. 10, which prevented the grounds crew from doing the necessary work to get the field up to standards. Even without that game it would’ve been difficult, but that extra delay did nothing to help.
(Photo by Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)
The league should have seen this schedule and raised a few flags. A surprisingly rainy season in the area was obviously impossible to account for, but those two concerts in succession made for a difficult ask – one the crew in Mexico City couldn’t fulfill.
Let this be a warning sign for the NFL when it comes to international games. It was a golden opportunity to bring a marquee game to foreign soil, but the league and the city fell flat on its face. While expanding the game around the world is a big priority – and for good reason – it does come with some risks, as we all saw this week.
